Tuesday, August 26, 2008 Villarente to Leon

Leon, Benedictine Convent/Monasterio

Catching the bus from Villarente to Leon turned out to be a very good idea.  It didn’t take much to convince Jim, really.   Our German friend, Erika, was going to ride, too, so we all three stood by the road and waited together in the chilly morning air.

Waiting for the bus into Leon. Erika is trying hard to distance herself from Jim's adolescent behavior.

The cost was only about a euro and in less than twenty minutes we were getting off at the bus station in Leon.  Indeed,  from what we could see through the bus windows, we didn’t miss anything of interest had we walked.  And we saw a lot of the Camino; it was close to the busy multi-lane divided highway much of the time.

We crossed the street from the bus station, walked across a bridge that spanned the river and into the city.  After stopping for breakfast at a quaint little cafe, we pushed on towards the famous cathedral of Leon.  But halfway there, we found ourselves in front of Gaudi’s Casa de Botines.

Casa de Botines by Antoni Gaudi

Having been educated about Gaudi during our three days in Barcelona, it was great to see something else of his work.  It was designed as a (very large) residence, but it is now a bank.  The plaza in front of the building has a bench upon which a person can sit right beside a bronze, life-size statue of the man himself, also sitting, reading a book.   Needless to say, we took pictures.

Helping Gaudi on his next project. He was a good listener.

Just a few blocks more and we finally found ourselves at the cathedral of Leon.  It is surrounded by a large open plaza and is, to say the least, awe-inspiring. The cathedral has been one of the sights I most wanted to see while I was here, ever since I read James Michener’s Iberia.   Michener said that of all the places he had traveled in the world and of all the sights he had witnessed, the night he stood outside the cathedral in Leon and saw the lights from inside the church illuminating the stained glass, that one had to be among the most memorable.  I was expecting great things and it did not disappoint, even in the daytime.

Cathedral in Leon

Still, I was most impressed when we went inside and strolled around. Really, the only other cathedral that awed me so immediately as did this one — and I’ve seen quite a few — was my first visit to St. Paul’s in London.  I’m sure there are other buildings in the world that might strike me the same way should I visit them.  But so far this one is among the best, no doubt.

Windows inside

We took the tour of the museum and the cloister.  It cost us 4E and was probably worth it; the art gallery is extensive and it was nice to see the courtyard and the cloisters.  It would have been worth it for sure had there been a guide we could understand.  So we were on our own for most of the tour.  Many of the paintings and sculptures in the gallery depicted martyrs and martyrdom, many of the arrow-pierced St Sebastian.  One gruesomely memorable painting was “The Martyrdom of St Erasmus.”  The saint was laying on a table with his torso cut open and his intestines pulled out and wrapped around a spit above him,  rotated like a string on a pencil by an evil looking torturer.

The cathedral itself charged no admission and displayed a great deal of art on its walls, too, not to mention the art of the chapels that surround the apse. Of particular interest to all Camino pilgrims was the large painting of the pilgrim on the left wall,  beneath which was a stone coffin and which traditionally, all pilgrims touch.  I was sad to leave the cathedral, it was so beautiful.  I knew I would forget much of what I saw.

The albergue here in the monasterio is very clean and neat and efficient.  The sleeping rooms are full of bunk beds and accomodate quite a few – the largest so far.

Albergue in Leon at the convent

The folks who registered us here were as friendly and as helpful as could be.  This is the most religiously oriented of the albergues we’ve been in so far.  I understand the nuns have a nightly prayer service just for pilgrims. I am looking forward to it.

For all the people I love in Texas. You can get your boots here in Leon.